This invention relates to a process for the preparation of anilines meta-substituted by chlorine, by selective dehalogenation or more highly halogenated anilines.
It is known to prepare meta-substituted chloroanilines by catalytic hydrogenation of polychloroanilines in the gas phase (German Published Specification No. 2,258,769). The polychloroanilines are dehalogenated in a tubular reactor, for example over a copper-(II) chloride/aluminium oxide catalyst, at temperatures above 300.degree. C. In the case of the dehalogenation described above, it is always mixtures which are isolated, and these predominantly consist of the starting compound and of compounds which have only been dehalogenated incompletely in the ortho- and para-position. Anilines substituted only in the meta-position by chlorine are only produced in low yields.